Serissa leaves

lkn2myis

I need some help.
I have a beautiful, small leaved Serissa. It is in an east facing window, with grow lights on it about 14 hours a day. It is doing well, HOWEVER it has recently developed some new growth with LARGE leaves on the top. It has also wprouted what looks like large leaved new plants at the base of it's trunk.
I have no idea what is happening. Can anyone offer any advice/help/info?

Advertisement

TreeBay

Here is a link on the same subject from bonsaiweb

http://www.bonsaiweb.com/ponds/forums/messages/163.html

Some plants that are cultivars of other varieties can "revert"under stress. You can pinch off the oversize leaves, but I would be tempted to let the grow out and see what happens.

__________________

Want to be a seller on bonsaiAUCTIONS? Get authorized today!

bonsaiTALK: Over 100,005.36 Megabytes Served this Month!

lkn2myis

Matt -
Thanks for the info and link.
I'll take your advice and let it come in for a while. Beginning to kind of look like a three-tiered rain forest, which is kind of neat.
Just a relief to know that I didn't inspire it to become Audra from 'Little Shop Of Horrors'.
I appreciate your help.

Bob_O

Hi,
What is happening is:
The shoots coming off the bottom of your plant are suckers. They should be removed as they draw energy from the tree & can cause it to give up it's trunk if they grow long enough.

The oversize leaves are a result of low light conditions. The tree is trying to catch more light, by makeing larger leaves, to compensate, the internodes will also be noticebly longer. When you put the plant outside for the summer prune back to the old growth so that subsequent growth will be smaller leaved with shorter internodes.

Hope this helps,
Bob O

TreeBay

Thank-U Bob,

I entirely missed the line about the water sprouts coming from the base. : You will want to remove those right away. About the only reason I can think you might leave them on would be to deliberately weaken the tree, or build up the roots on that side of the tree.

Better cut 'em off!

__________________

Want to be a seller on bonsaiAUCTIONS? Get authorized today!

bonsaiTALK: Over 100,005.36 Megabytes Served this Month!

jimmygreen

i'm just a little curious here..
i bought a bonsai not too long ago and i was told its a serissa. but i've seen photos of serissa's with entirely green leaves. mine however have a white section in the middle. is my tree a specific type of serissa that i've never heard of or seen before, or is it not a serissa at all? i appologize for my lack of a photo, but i hope this drawing i did will help a bit...

(1) my bonsai's leaves
(2)serissa leaves i've seen in photos..

[img]URL[/img]

Tony

Your tree is probably a variegated serissa. They are fairly common.

Tony is right on, there are several varieties of serrisa including the varigated ones. One sure way to identify it is to take a few leaves & crush them in your fingers. If they smell very bad you know its a serrisa. The latin name for serrisa is Serrisa foteada. Foteada means stinky. ;-)

Bob O

jimmygreen

i don see what the big fuss is about serissa's smell. i kinda like it.